Spring Training for
Roadies coaches you through the crucial 8-week bridge from the
off-season to summer cycling.
Author Fred Matheny's daily workout schedules are preceded
by descriptions of a variety of training techniques, giving you an arsenal of
effective workouts for entering the summer season fitter than ever.
Plus,
Coach Fred provides his expert advice on key topics such as ―
What's your current cycling ability? What are your goals?
This eBook presents 8-week training schedules for 3 levels of roadies. One
program is likely to be on target for you now. Another might be perfect for next
season as you progress in the sport.
Level 1: Fitness cyclists. Choose this if you are just getting started
in the sport or want to achieve and maintain general cycling fitness.
Level 2: Fast recreational cyclists. This is the program for more
experienced riders who want to perform well in group rides, in centuries and
on multiday tours.
Level 3: Competitive cyclists. This is for licensed racers and cyclists who want to ride athletically with speed and power in club training
rides and events.
When should you begin your
Spring Training for Roadies
program? It’s ideal for April and May, but what you’ll read works during any
2-month period when your goal is to convert general fitness into
cycling-specific speed, power and endurance.
The following
excerpt comes from Chapter 2, "Building Endurance." In it, Coach Fred
Matheny explains why peppering long rides with a few hard efforts is so
beneficial.
EXCERPT:
Distance and Speed
Cycling events
require you to go the distance—but
they also require speed and power. You need speed to stay with the pack or catch
back up, and to sprint. Power is required for climbing and battling headwinds.
Think about when you get dropped. Is it when the pack is spinning along
at a steady and moderate pace for a long time? I doubt it. It probably happens
when the pace increases abruptly or the pack jams up a tough hill. If you have
the power and speed to stick with these hard accelerations for 30 seconds or
even a couple of minutes, the pace will ease and you’ll still be in the shelter
of the group. But if you lose contact even for a moment, you’ll likely be off
the back for good.
EXAMPLE! Average power output during a road race is
meaningless. Pros may average only about 150-170 watts—well within the
capacity of recreational riders. However, watt-measuring devices such as the
PowerTap reveal relentless spikes of power during races. Peak loads of more
than 1,000 watts are common, and these surges are repeated many times. The
wattage profile looks like the teeth of a saw.
Now you see why a diet of long rides at a steady
pace is fine for winter conditioning, but it’s an outdated approach for building
endurance in the spring when events are much closer. It’s much better to mix
faster, harder efforts into long rides to simulate the demands of the events
you’re preparing for.
Even if you usually ride solo and set your own pace in long events, developing
speed and power will increase your cruising speed. This means you’ll ride faster
with the same perceived effort. You’ll also finish more comfortably by reducing
overall on-bike time.
Here’s the training approach I recommend:
During the middle third of any long ride, push some hills, do 2 or 3 fast time
trial-like efforts near your lactate threshold (see page 8), and throw in
a few short jumps. On group rides, sprint for road signs or other landmarks
against your training buddies. Sandwich this period of hard efforts between
steady spinning in the first third and last third of the ride. This is the way
to build speed and power in concert with endurance.
